Music News | Noise11: Cornelius “Nini” Harp, the lead singer of the Marcels, died on Wednesday from what was reported to be natural causes.
The Marcels were formed at Oliver Allegheny High School in Pittsburgh in 1959. The original group was unique in its day as three members were African-Americans (Harp, Ronald Mundy, Fred Johnson) and two were white (Gene Bricker, Richard Knauss).
In early 1961, the group cut a demo of a 1933 Richard Rodgers/Lorenz Hart song, Blue Moon. It so impressed the management at Colpix Records that they had a copy run over to disc jockey Murray “The K” Kaufman who aired it numerous times the night it was recorded.
Saturday, June 08, 2013
Marshall Sewell, R. I. P.
news obituary | cleveland.com: A typical doo-wop song features a booming bass singer, and few boomed like Marshall Sewell. He was a Cleveland police sergeant and an original member of the Edsels, best known for the number "Rama Lama Ding Dong."
The Oakwood man died Wednesday, June 5, at the Hospice of the Western Reserve after a year's struggle with esophageal cancer. He was 75.
James D. Sundquist Sr., R. I. P.
Star Tribune: Sundquist, James D., Sr. Age 75, of Fairfax, MN, formerly of Minneapolis, born Nov. 26, 1937 in Niagara, WI to Edwin & Edith Sundquist, passed away June 4, 2013. Jimmy was one of the original duo from the band, Fendermen with the hit record, "Muleskinner Blues" from 1960.
Making the World Safe for Darth Vader
NYPOST.com: Star Wars' Chewbacca found the farce was with him — when airport staff feared his lightsaber-style walking stick was a weapon.
Hat tip to Art Scott.
Hat tip to Art Scott.
Here's the Plot for Your Next Noir Thriller
CSMonitor.com: Suspect buried alive: In a case of vigilante justice, villagers in Bolivia buried alive a suspect in the rape and murder of a woman. They buried the man in the grave of the woman that he allegedly murdered.
Hat tip to Michael Bracken.
Hat tip to Michael Bracken.
First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .
South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com: Man collars girlfriend with dog leash in violent argument, cops say
Friday, June 07, 2013
Prediction Update
Google Unveils Model to Predict Box Office Success: The company says it can use search data to project a film's opening weekend revenue with 94 percent accuracy.
Ben Tucker, R. I. P.
Mail Online: Legendary jazz bassist Ben Tucker who performed with stars from Quincy Jones to Peggy Lee was killed in a Georgia crash Tuesday at age 82.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Forgotten Magazines -- The Mysterious Traveler, Volume 1, Number 1, November 1951
As you can see from the scan, the idea was to present "Great stories of Mystery, Detection, and Suspense," on in other words, mostly reprints. There's even one story attributed to The Mysterious Traveler himself, but it's also a reprint of a story credited to Albert Fell. Is Fell Robert Arthur? Maybe. He was also one of the writers and directors of the radio show, which was considerably more successful than the magazine. The other author and director was David P. Kogan, listed as the publisher on the contents page of the magazine. The radio show had nearly 400 episodes, while the magazine ran for only five issues. The radio show opened with the sound of a locomotive, and then the Mysterious Traveler intoned the opening. Like many anthology shows, the stories were often dark and twisted noir tales that didn't end well.
Here's a listing of the contents of the magazine.
Thursday, June 06, 2013
He Eschewed Self-Publishing
Pig in Wheelchair Lands 3-Book Deal - GalleyCat: Chris P. Bacon, the little pig in a wheelchair who dominated YouTube this year, has inked a three-book deal with self-help publisher Hay House.
Hat tip to Fred Zackel.
Hat tip to Fred Zackel.
Esther Williams, R. I. P.
Technicolor Star Esther Williams Dies at Age 91: Esther Williams, the swimming champion turned actress who starred in glittering and aquatic Technicolor musicals of the 1940s and 1950s, has died. She was 91.
Joey Covington, R. I. P.
Joey Covington, Hot Tuna and Jefferson Airplane Drummer, Dead at 67: Joey Covington, who helped to create Hot Tuna and played drums in Jefferson Airplane for a few years, has died at the age of 67. He passed away on June 4 following a car crash in Palm Springs.
D-Day
D-Day - June 6, 1944 - the United States Army: June 6, 1944, 160,000 Allied troops landed along a 50-mile stretch of heavily-fortified French coastline to fight Nazi Germany on the beaches of Normandy, France. General Dwight D. Eisenhower called the operation a crusade in which “we will accept nothing less than full victory.” More than 5,000 Ships and 13,000 aircraft supported the D-Day invasion, and by day’s end on June 6, the Allies gained a foot- hold in Normandy. The D-Day cost was high -more than 9,000 Allied Soldiers were killed or wounded -- but more than 100,000 Soldiers began the march across Europe to defeat Hitler.
Wednesday, June 05, 2013
PimPage: An Occasional Feature in Which I Call Attention to Books of Interest
The Fever Kill: Tom Piccirilli: 9780985578657: Amazon.com: Books: Crease is going back to his quaint, quiet hometown of Hangtree. It’s where his father, the sheriff, met ruin in the face of a scandal involving the death of a kidnapped little girl and her missing ransom. It’s where Crease was beaten, jailed, and kicked clear of the town line ten years earlier. The town still has a taste for his blood and secrets it wants to keep. Crease has a single hope; a raw and raging fever driving him toward the truth that might just burn him up along the way.
Deacon Jones, R. I. P.
NYTimes.com: Deacon Jones, a prototype of the pass-rushing defensive end who became a master of the sack and one of the National Football League’s greatest defensive players with the Los Angeles Rams’ line known as the Fearsome Foursome, died on Monday in Anaheim Hills, Calif. He was 74.
Western Fictioneers: Wolf Creek 5: Showdown at Demon's Drop
With a preview from the chapter written by . . . me!
Western Fictioneers: Wolf Creek 5: Showdown at Demon's Drop
Western Fictioneers: Wolf Creek 5: Showdown at Demon's Drop
Emily Dickinson's Herbarium
Emily Dickinson: Her collection of botanical specimens: Dickinson’s herbarium, held by Harvard’s Houghton Library, has been digitized. The book is searchable by plant name. For each page, the reader can click on the “view text” tab to see transcriptions of Dickinson’s plant identification labels, along with their modern equivalents.
Prologue Books Is Having a Sale
For the month of June, Prologue Books is discounting a bunch of their ebooks to 99 cents on Amazon.com. Here is the link: http://amzn.to/17m8eIq. It's a great opportunity to check out some authors you've always wanted to read but couldn't find in reasonably priced editions. This is a really great selection. You can't go wrong!
Archaeology Update
Archaeology | Sci-News.com: Etruscan amphorae and a limestone pressing platform unearthed at the ancient coastal port site of Lattara in southern France provide the earliest known archaeological evidence of grape wine from this country, and point to the origins of French winemaking around 500 – 400 BC.
AbeBooks: Most Expensive Sales in May 2013
AbeBooks: Most Expensive Sales in May 2013: The top sale in May was a precious 1908 edition of Tibet and Lhasa by John Claude White. A remarkable piece of colonial history, the book contains 53 plates taken from glass negatives that White captured during the 1904 British expedition to Tibet. The mission itself was military in nature and designed to prevent Tibet from encroaching on the Sikkim region in the Himalayan mountains. As political officer for Sikkim, White co-led the mission.
Tuesday, June 04, 2013
Robert E. Howard Days Coming This Weekend to Cross Plains
Robert E. Howard Days Coming This Weekend to Cross Plains: Once again, the Project Pride organization in Cross Plains is playing host to the annual Robert E. Howard Days on Friday, June 7 and Saturday, June 8, celebrating the legacy of the Cross Plains resident during the 20's and 30's. Howard may be best known for his Conan the Barbarian character, but he also wrote many other genres.
Headquartered at the Howard Museum at 625 W. HW 36, this annual gathering of fans of Ol’ Two-Gun Bob Howard is presented by the fine folks of Project Pride of Cross Plains, sponsored by the Robert E. Howard Foundation with the help of the members of REHupa, the Robert E. Howard United Press Association.
Overlooked Movies -- Advise and Consent
.jpg)
If you watched the trailer I posted a bit earlier, you might have noticed that the narrator says, "A word of warning: These people are all fictional, so don't try to guess who they are." What that means, of course, is that everyone in the movie is based on a real person, not that any of the whippersnappers reading this will remember most of them. Part of the fun of reading the book was figuring out which actual people Drury was writing about. The characters may be composites, but some of them seem clearly based on easily recognized people.
Not that it matters now, fifty years on down the line. What matters is that the more things change, the more they stay the same. The book and movie are the story of a seriously ill president trying to get his nominee confirmed as secretary of state. The obstructionists in the senate (notably Charles Laughton in the movie, in a great hammy performance) will do anything to stop the confirmation because they believe nominee is a commie. The president will do anything, dig up any dirt, to get the confirmation. And the dirt that's dug is pretty racy for 1962, believe me. Now? You decide, but I wonder if things have changed much, if at all.
This is a Big Hollywood Movie, with lots of name stars (well, they were names in 1962). They're uniformly excellent in their roles, with a couple of people having the best parts of their careers (Peter Lawford, for one, who in a smooth casting move plays someone very much like JFK).
Interestingly enough (to me, if not to you) is the fact that as much as I liked the book and movie, I never read one of the several sequels to the novel that Drury wrote.
Monday, June 03, 2013
First It Was the Thin Mints Melee . . .
NYPOST.com: Drunken Brooklyn lawyer tossed her panties at cops during berserk rant
PimPage: An Occasional Feature in Which I Call Attention to Books of Interest
Amazon.com: Hard Truths (Hard Truths crime writer interviews) eBook: Tony Black: Kindle Store: Hard Truths is an 85,000-word collection of interviews with the crime genre's most accomplished writers. As both an award-winning journalist and one of the most acclaimed crime writers of recent times Tony Black is uniquely placed to cross-examine crime fiction's bestselling authors. Names like Ian Rankin, Irvine Welsh, Andrew Vachss and William McIlvanney reveal the secrets of their craft in a series of interviews conducted over the last five years.
Black takes an often no-holds-barred approach and pushes friendships to the limit as he teases out the truth on subjects as diverse as politics, the writing life, popular culture and personal histories. Always entertaining and often heartfelt these exchanges offer an entertaining, humorous and eclectic look at some of the genre's leading lights.
No Smoking, Please
The Daily Beast: Smoking bans have transformed the prison economy, reports Gorilla Convict Seth Ferranti.
Sunday, June 02, 2013
Once Again Texas Leads the Way
CBS Dallas / Fort Worth:- A hive of 40,000 Africanized honey bees, known as “killer bees,” killed a Central Texas man and hurt a woman who came to his aid.
It happened in Moody, about thirty minutes south of Waco.
PimPage: An Occasional Feature in Which I Call Attention to Books of Interest
Amazon.com: COLT (Nicholas Colt #1) eBook: Jude Hardin: Kindle Store: October 21: just an ordinary day, unless you’re a former rock star… The sole survivor of a plane crash… A private investigator working out of a camper…
For Nicholas Colt, October 21 is an unlucky day. A day for nightmares. It always has been, and this year is no exception.
Someone is brutally murdering the offspring of an anonymous sperm donor, and Colt’s missing client is next on the list. With less than four days to find the young man—and, with a pair of drug-addicted study partners, a violent motorcycle gang, a stalker ex-girlfriend, and a host of other obstacles standing in his way—Colt faces the most challenging and deadly case of his life.
Here's the Plot for Your Next Historical Thriller
The Strange Story of Marie Antoinette's Watch: It was a watch so beautiful, so elegant, so precise, that it could only have been meant for royalty. Then it vanished without a trace.
William Demby, R. I. P.
NYTimes.com: William Demby, whose novels, written while he was an expatriate in Italy, challenged literary conventions and expectations of what a black writer should write about, died on May 23 at his home in Sag Harbor, N.Y. He was 90.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)